In case you didn’t know, the exteriors of the Studio 60 that is the physical Studio in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip are filmed at the “World Famous” Hollywood Palladium. Which is pronounced Pa-LAY-di-um, not PAL-a-DI-um, like I originally thought upon moving here until my roommate corrected me while adding a silent “how could you not know that? It’s ‘world famous!’” all in one sarcastic, post-correction, nod. Anyway, the EXT. Studio 60 actually is on Sunset Blvd., although not on Sunset Strip, which is further west. So that’s semi-truthy. The Palladium looks much better the way production shoots and frames it; with it’s blue neon lights, et cetera, and the boring parking lots and white paint cut out.

I recognized the location immediately in the pilot and realized that I had driven past one of their shoots. And hey, guess what? Tonight, during the show, they were shooting there again: At the Palladium.

I know because I drive by the Palladium at least once a day. This is because it’s by the Gower Gulch, a.k.a. the portal to another dimension, a.k.a. the place where once I nearly got caught between a dozen policemen with weapons drawn and the end of a car chase, a.k.a. the place where a biker built like Michael Clark Duncan going by the name of “Madd” (that’s right, two ds per the back of his leather, biker vest) once grabbed my long hair and smelled it, a.k.a. the place where I once saw a homeless lady cop a squat right beneath the streetlamp whilst across the street a fancy launch party for a new, popular mobile device was happening with full on red carpet, paparazzi, celebrities and other people who have private bathrooms inside homes with refrigerators and food and medication for when they get sick and some illusion of dignity. I don’t think that either of those worlds noticed one another, and as I drove between, I felt like I had stretched… and snapped some sort of rubber-band line that connected the two corners.

It was red.

(The rubber band, not the corner.)

And thick-wide.

And only I could see it.

The corner, on the other hand, was way too well lit and anyone who looked could see it: Not exactly a choice location for, well… I thought that’s what alleys were for?

No photographer abandoned the photag pen aside the carpet to get the shot, though. And if one had, who would have published such a cutting image of social inequality and irony? Photos of heiresses at launch parties are a sure bet.

So only I saw.

And while I was at the Gower Gulch Starbucks tonight, the 60 crew was across the street at the carwash behind huge, rigged lights that illuminated the front of the Palladium where the poster boxes had been filled with Studio 60 posters and the back right parking lot that runs aside El Centro was set for craft services complete with centerpieces and table cloths and a few trailers to hide the actors. What it must be like to watch from across the street in the hungry, homeless shadows as the intruding lights and pricey infrastructure rise around the stoop you usually sleep on.